


lingering

by spoke



Category: Final Fantasy IX
Genre: Gen, Horror, Zombies
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-24
Updated: 2019-10-24
Packaged: 2021-01-02 09:55:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 419
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21159755
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/spoke/pseuds/spoke





	lingering

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Resilur](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Resilur/gifts).

Mr. 288 shrugged as he added fuel to the campfire. “When Mr. 56 came and told us he’d been hearing weird noises from the graveyard, well. Sometimes something powerful gets past the barrier, and there’s nothing to do but kill it.” He stood, then, and motioned for them all to follow him as he set off through the village. 

Zindane huffed even though it got him a light shove by Garnet. “Really?” he hissed quietly, and motioned towards the black mage as if to ask why not him. What was really catching Vivi’s attention was the damage to the buildings, doors with blunt impact marks on them, a few broken windows... what had come through here?

“You would think that getting attacked by a bunch of black mages would chase anything off for good, but we made that mistake once...” Mr 288 shook his head. “Nobody appreciates getting woken up by a Zemzelett in the middle of the night, even if it wasn’t trying to eat you.” 

“I didn’t appreciate it! Though I bet it stopped thinking I was tasty by the end.” Mr. 163 called from the gate to the cemetary. Behind him, the cemetary looked... different. The gate was higher, for one thing, and a lot more solid looking. 

“I still wish it was owls, though.” Mr 56 added. 

What really unsettled Vivi, so that he whispered, “Uh, Zidane. Something’s really, really wrong here.” was the magic he could feel coiled up in it. It wasn’t like the barrier around the Iifa Tree, which had been so contained he’d barely sensed it at all. This was a seething mess that snapped at the edges and felt like fire and lightning, pain and fear. Mr. 163 was facing towards it, and so was Mr. 56, both of them with their staffs held ready. 

Mr. 288 had stopped just behind the other two, but Vivi kept going until he was standing between them, drawn by the gate’s magic and the morbid curiosity it had inspired. He staggered back into the larger mage when he made eye contact with what was standing behind the gate - vacant, glowing green discs that somehow had nothing in it that he recognized as a fellow black mage. 

Even the ones on the cargo ship hadn’t felt empty like this, and worse, hungry somehow? They’d just been... elsewhere, until the Black Waltz showed up, but there’d been somebody there. Vivi felt himself start crying as he heard Mr. 56 whisper, “It isn’t Mr. 36 anymore...”


End file.
